Putting out St. Lucie brush fire compared to Whac-A-Mole game

DEBORAH SILVER/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS Brion Pauley, supervisor with the St. Lucie County Environmental Resources Department, walks down Kings Highway as crews work a brush fire that rekindled from last Sunday between Indrio Road and Kings Highway and along the west side of U.S. 1 in the Indrio-Savannas Preserve County Park in northern St. Lucie County on Sunday afternoon.
Brion Pauley CQ
PHOTO TAKEN: SUNDAY 3/31/2013

Treasure Coast Newspapers

ST. LUCIE COUNTY -- Florida Forestry Service officials expect to have the 360-acre Indrio Road fire fully contained by the end of the day Tuesday, but their work isn't done.

Firefighters still have to keep knocking out small flareups in the burned forests -- a task that service regional manager Dale Armstrong compared to the Whac-A-Mole game.

Workers drive around in small tank-equipped trucks and spray water when they find a log or bush burning. Winds can blow sparks away, potentially starting another fire.

On Tuesday morning, about 98 percent of the fire was contained, meaning bulldozers had cut fire lanes around virtually all the burned acreage. The lanes are paths of cleared earth that help prevent the fire from spreading.